Twelve years after first goof, Channel 2 pre-empts another auto race

The NBC affiliate elected Sunday morning not to air NBC’s coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix, opting instead for infomercials, and subsequently issued an apology on its Facebook page.

“The decision was made not to air the Monaco Grand Prix on KPRC.,” the post read. “We apologize to anyone who is missing the race.” In a subsequent message on Facebook, the station wrote, “We do apologize once more for the inconvenience this has caused many of you. We value ALL of our viewers and your feedback will be discussed with management so we bring you the best in programming and news. We appreciate the time you’ve taken to comment.”

It issued a similar apology on its station Twitter account.

Viewers with long memories will recall that this is not the first time Channel 2 has tangled with auto racing fans, although this instance is arguably more egregious than the last.

In July 2001, station manager Steve Wasserman made the decision to carry the Miss Texas pageant on Channel 2 instead of the Pepsi 400 NASCAR race. This was a few months after Dale Earnhardt’s death, as you may recall, and the first year of NASCAR’s first big network contract with Fox and NBC.

Back in those days, stations regularly were able to switch pre-empted programs to KNWS (Channel 51), but Channel 51 had already committed to air an Astros game the day of the race, so it appeared only on tape-delay in Houston.

Wasserman sent a e-mail apology to those who complained, writing, “It seems we may have underestimated the viewer interest in this weekend’s race.” Two years later, he opted for the race and tried to make arrangements to show the beauty pageant on tape delay, and pageant officials pulled their event from Channel 2 and aired it on another local station.

Wasserman did, however, make it a habit to pre-empt a lot of NBC weekend programming with infomercials, and that decision, alas, seems to have become a part of Channel 2’s DNA more than a decade later. I, personally, never forgave him for pre-empting SCTV reruns on Channel 2, too, but that’s water under the bridge.

As of late Sunday night, there were almost 300 comments on the Facebook thread regarding the decision to pre-empt the Grand Prix.